'Very unhappy.'
'Does it frighten you?'
'Yes. It makes me fear that you for a while will be made miserable,—you whom I had thought that I could protect from all sorrow and from all care! O my darling! of course it frightens me; but it is for you.'
'What will they do first, John?'
'They have already said words before the man there which will of course be spread about the country.'
'What words?'
Then he paused, but after pausing he spoke very plainly. 'They said that you were not my wife.'
'But I am.'
'Indeed you are.'
'Tell me all truly. Though I were not, I would still be true to you.'